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Business Consulting

Every business is like an iceberg of which the real problems and growth opportunities are not always readily apparent. At the beginning of my work, I try to understand the client's business model in their industry as quickly as possible, especially how it works in practice. My diagnosis is based on 33 years of experience as a CEO in corporations and as an independent business advisor.

At the beginning of the collaboration, I have many conversations and work with the client's employees from all levels of the organisation, analysing data, processes, procedures and organisational structure, as well as financial performance from the past several years. Then, after getting to the root of the problems, I show the client new possibilities.

My goal in business consulting is to improve the client's profitability, not to deliver a consultancy report that will not be used. In practice, my work is a combination of consulting, mentoring and personalised business training.

The following paragraphs show examples of typical company problems I help solve.

Low Operational Efficiency

My long-standing experience as a manager and as a business consultant makes it clear that there are significant reserves in the day-to-day (tactical) operations of companies to increase their profitability. These are difficult to spot even for very experienced managers, who are stuck in a rut in operations and lack openness to product and process innovations. Typical symptoms of low operational efficiency are:

• Too little profit in relation to the company's efforts

• Lack of budgeting and controlling

• Internally agreed plans are not being implemented

• The company's sales are growing faster than the organisation itself

• Sales growth does not translate into profit growth

Low operational efficiency therefore translates directly into the current profitability of the company. This is a trap in which many companies remain stuck for years. You can get out of it on your own by changing the company dramatically, or you can get help such as mine. These options are described below.

Strategy - Absent or Sham

Most companies do not have a real business strategy and some of them even lack an annual action plan. Nor is it a strategy to set the company to grow by, say, 10% per year for the next few years. My strategic business advice to clients is to establish such long-term priorities for action that will give a sustainable strategic advantage that is difficult for competitors to copy.

I write about real strategy based on in-house or purchased innovation on my blog, at the link below.

Executive Micromanagement

Micromanagement is a disease that afflicts a great many managers all over the world, including Poland. This is why it is so common, as almost every manager goes through it at the beginning of their managerial career. Some become immune to it as they gain experience, but a significant proportion of managers suffer from it throughout their lives. It has a huge impact on the operational efficiency of the company and the motivation levels of employees. I am effective in helping executives recover from the addiction to micromanagement.

Low Employee Engagement

The phenomenon of low employee motivation is quite common. Studies show that the majority of employees in Poland do not feel satisfied with their work. The reasons for this are individual for each company and each employee and may stem from the following:

• bad motivation system (material and non-material)

• leadership style

• poor work organisation (systems, processes)

As a consultancy, I help companies diagnose the motivation problem in their companies and build a motivation system that effectively encourages employees at all levels to achieve the company's goals.

You cannot increase employee motivation and engagement with a single training course. Why? Read my post at the link below.

Poor Communication Within the Company

Internal communication within a company is the real Achilles' heel of Polish companies. Nowadays, when individual company departments have to operate in an integrated manner, it is impossible to function as a team without effective communication. In a modern organisation, the flow of information must be two-way:

• top-bottom of the organisation

• bottom-up

• horizontal, between departmental staff

• project-based, between departmental people and external consultants

• horizontal, between managers

The most common problems of companies in terms of communication are:

• information overload (information noise from which nothing results)

• lack of bottom-up feedback

• ineffective managerial communication that does not translate into action, including no or ineffective managerial meetings

• ‘corporate politics’ in communication

• failure to base communication on real results and facts that need to be precisely measured and cyclically observed

The reasons for poor communication in a company can be related to leadership, the culture of the organisation, systems and processes, etc. I help clients set up the internal and external communication process properly.

My Business Consulting - Pricing

Many companies in need wonder how much business consultancy costs. With me, the answer to this question is transparent from the start.

Hourly rate: PLN 400-500 net per hour

Number of hours ‘on demand’ - depending on the client's needs

If you are struggling to manage yourself and your business, arrange a free 15 minute consultation with me via my contact form.